Unfortunate photo - To Chicago Tribune Editorial Board

The photo atop today's Tribune editorial 'From the rubble of Sept. 11' is most unfortunate and disinformative, indeed. It shows a Tomahawk cruise missile rising from the USS Porter to kill and destroy at a Syrian air base last April "in retaliation for a chemical attack that killed scores of civilians.' No doubt meant to highlight presidential use of lethal power under the antiquated 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), the picture actually highlights what's wrong with American foreign policy..and American journalism. Both Trump and the Trib rushed to judgement after the April gas attack and immediately blamed Syria. Trump launched the 69 Tomahawks against Syria without offering a scintilla of evidence, and the Trib backed his utterly unsubstantiated fairy tale that continues now into its eighth month. This is simply a repeat of the both the Obama and Tribune version of the August, 2013, Syrian gas attack that was also blamed on the Syrian government without a shred of evidence. One big difference. When the intelligence professionals informed Obama no evidence existed to support an attack against Syrian president Assad, Obama acted presidential and cancelled the retaliatory raid. That cost him unremitting hatred by the war party who never let evidence get in the way of military action. Nor, apparently, does it get in the way of the Tribune from promoting disinformation to back endless perpetual war. The Trib closes its editorial with Sen. Bob Corker's comment he feared that Trump's reckless threats against other nations could set the U.S. "on the path to World War III." The Trib Editorial Board might add that it's really Trump's reckless actions, fully supported by the Sages in the Tribune Tower, that put us at risk for WW III.